Bagrie-Howley and pairs partner Craig Tinker competed at The Hong Kong International Bowls Classic earlier this month where they finished second.
Twenty-four international pairs featured at the tournament.
They played and beat England in the quarterfinal and then beat Ireland in the semifinal.
"We managed to tip over a lot of really good teams in the knockout stage."
They won nine games in a row before losing, he said.
"Even though we had won 10 out of the 11 games in qualifying if we lost one other game we would’ve missed out completely."
It had been a tight draw, he said.
"We sort of scraped our way through. We weren’t really firing up until we got to the quarterfinal and semi and that’s when we really played well."
They then played Malaysia in the final and lost.
"It just didn’t quite happen for us on the day."
The Malaysian pair were a tough matchup, he said.
"They’re a very good pairing.
"I’ve played against the [Malaysian] skip quite a lot of times, mainly in singles. He’s definitely one of their more handy players."
Due to Covid-19 the tournament had not been held since 2018.
"I’ve been trying to get to the tournament for ages.
"It was cool to get to go over with another Southland guy."
The experience in Hong Kong had been one of a kind, he said.
"It was definitely the best tournament I’ve been to — just with the way they run everything and look after you."
The playing surfaces were definitely tougher there, he said.
"They’re not as true as over here but we knew that leading in to it so we had to change our bowls."
Prior to the pairs competition Bagrie-Howley played in the tournament singles.
He made the quarterfinals and played Philippines bowler Elmer Abatayo. He lost in a tie-breaker.
